lying/cheating/exaggerating me

debbiequack
debbiequack Posts: 275 Member
edited September 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Okay, one of my goals on this site is to be totally honest.

As I have entered calories and exercise, I notice, that almost unconsciously, I tend to slightly over-report how much I exercise and slightly under-report how much I eat!! :)

Anyone else do this?

Here's to honesty!

Debbie

Replies

  • Helice
    Helice Posts: 1,075 Member
    I use to do this!
    But now its the other way round....
    I pretend it wasn't quite as many calories...
    Although with exercise im truthful.
  • Hummmingbird
    Hummmingbird Posts: 337 Member
    GUILTY. I justify EVERYTHING too much! That is one of the challenges Im trying to over come in my self/weight loss journey!
  • FaithandFitness
    FaithandFitness Posts: 653 Member
    I have struggled too, but more in the way of "do I really need to log that" and my answer is YES, I really do. I have been pretty honest about portion size and time exercising, but logging EVERYTHING is my struggle. Fortunately, I can honestly say I have logged everything, but it has been a challenge!
  • Johnnygirl777
    Johnnygirl777 Posts: 142
    haha, I've caught myself under counting food before and I always adjust it, I feel too guilty if I don't!

    What does help is I always tend to undercut my workouts by time or by home many burned cals there were so I figure it should even out :)
  • ChessRonin
    ChessRonin Posts: 160 Member
    I agree with some of the responders who said they exaggerate the other way around.

    I make it a policy to under-estimate my exercise while over-estimating my calories. Just make it a conscious policy. Your sub-conscious can't force you to do something differently when you have a conscious and deliberate policy.
  • whiskey9890
    whiskey9890 Posts: 652 Member
    i tend to over estimate my exercise (thats getting under control now) and also my food just incase i ate more than i thought but i'm a right one for not recording fluids i only really drink tea and water but quite often forget to log them or not all of them
  • jessimacar
    jessimacar Posts: 291
    I do the opposite. I tend to over estimate my food, and try to underestimate my exercise so that it looks slightly worse than it is, and I hopefully get a nice surprise when I weigh in. :)
  • goron59
    goron59 Posts: 890 Member
    I've certainly done this, although I try not to.

    When the food I eat is clearly labelled, then no, I'm honest.
    If the exercise I do is with my HRM/GPS tracker, then I'm honest there too.

    When it's vague, I tend to guess in my favour, though not always.

    The truth comes out on the scales though, and I've reached a happy balance of lifestyle, reporting and loss.
  • promiseskept
    promiseskept Posts: 119
    I don't, because really, who am I slighting? Me. I want to win this arms race!
  • Newfiedan
    Newfiedan Posts: 1,517 Member
    Okay, one of my goals on this site is to be totally honest.

    As I have entered calories and exercise, I notice, that almost unconsciously, I tend to slightly over-report how much I exercise and slightly under-report how much I eat!! :)

    Anyone else do this?

    Here's to honesty!

    Debbie
    In the end doing this is only cheating yourself, you are the one who is accountable to yourself, it does not matter what anyone else on here thinks or says about it. When you wake in the morning and look in the mirror its you who has to say to yourself "am I really doing this to myself?"
  • missy1970eb
    missy1970eb Posts: 1,209 Member
    no, there is no point u r only cheating urself
  • Andi_Mo
    Andi_Mo Posts: 243
    I don't, because really, who am I slighting? Me. I want to win this arms race!

    This is exactly why I don't make my diary public. No matter how much I would like to impress people, it's about my own life. If I stick to my calories and get my exercise in, I'm happy. So even if I had a chocolate or donuts, I feel victorious because I used to eat much more and be much heavier. I don't want to feel the need to lie or make it look like I "ate clean" just to impress people. The only person that loses is me. The encourgement I get for exercising makes me work harder and burn more but ultimately I'm running my own race against myself.
  • forestdancers
    forestdancers Posts: 146 Member
    I used to but then realized that the only person I was cheating was me. Out of my future.
    So I turned around. Changed my settings from lightly active to sedentary even though I am a janitor, and I under report my exercise and over report my food.
    It's better to cheat myself out of looking good on paper than to cheat myself out of my life.
  • ryzola
    ryzola Posts: 51 Member
    I try adding slightly more food, so I've got a margin of error. I still make sure I'm within my constraints though. I try to be realistic with my exercise though.
  • nerdyandilikeit
    nerdyandilikeit Posts: 2,185 Member
    I agree with some of the responders who said they exaggerate the other way around.

    I make it a policy to under-estimate my exercise while over-estimating my calories. Just make it a conscious policy. Your sub-conscious can't force you to do something differently when you have a conscious and deliberate policy.

    I do this too, so I can always keep a buffer in case of inaccuracies in my measurements or exercise.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    Okay, one of my goals on this site is to be totally honest.

    As I have entered calories and exercise, I notice, that almost unconsciously, I tend to slightly over-report how much I exercise and slightly under-report how much I eat!! :)

    Anyone else do this?

    Here's to honesty!

    Debbie

    Welcome to being human ;) So many people do this.

    Check out this link:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1454084

    The participants of this study where specifically chosen because they were insistent that they could not lose weight depsite consuming less than 1,200 calories day, far less than it appears was needed to maintain their weight.

    Put them under lab conditions and lo and behold it was discovered their actual intake was much higher than they thought and their physical activity was much lower.

    Lots of people like to think they are different or that the laws of thermodynamics as applied to bio-energetics does not apply to them. I guess that it was the diet and health industry is so lucrative. Yes it is true that some people have a harder time losing weight than others but fundamentally energy in v energy out applies to EVERYONE. That's just my opinion though...
  • loseit4ever
    loseit4ever Posts: 187 Member
    I only find myself wanting to do this when I know I'm going to be over in my cals. Now, I'm just trying to be up-front with myself about it and if I eat too much, I make myself do the exercise to counteract it. I usually log my food estimates high if I don't know that exact numbers. That way, I know I'm not hurting myself by thinking I ate less than I did. Also, I figure I don't want praise from people here that I don't deserve. I respect the friends I've made here and admire them so much that I want to be completely honest with them too!
  • awyler
    awyler Posts: 78
    [/quote]

    This is exactly why I don't make my diary public. No matter how much I would like to impress people, it's about my own life. If I stick to my calories and get my exercise in, I'm happy. So even if I had a chocolate or donuts, I feel victorious because I used to eat much more and be much heavier. I don't want to feel the need to lie or make it look like I "ate clean" just to impress people. The only person that loses is me. The encourgement I get for exercising makes me work harder and burn more but ultimately I'm running my own race against myself.
    [/quote]

    i agree with you 100%!!!
  • debbiequack
    debbiequack Posts: 275 Member
    I agree about the "being human" part and thanks for posting that link :)

    I actually do not "lie" to impress others... it really isn't all that conscious, and it's ME that I am/was fooling. But I also agree that making a conscious effort to not do it, is the way out, and I like peoples' posts about overreporting food and underreporting exercise.

    Best!

    Debbie
  • daddyratty
    daddyratty Posts: 305 Member
    Even if you don't record it, your body does.
  • feliciapeters
    feliciapeters Posts: 525
    I OVER estimate on FOOD
    and
    UNDER estimate on exercise

    The only one I'm cheating is myself
  • loriefolk
    loriefolk Posts: 352
    NOPE! This site keeps me 100% honest and I love that!
  • Natural
    Natural Posts: 461 Member
    i overestimate, but then again, i don't log everything, like the candy bar i'm about to go eat. i met my goal in october of last year and i'm under my goal weight by 5 pounds. my diary is open and not 100% honest, it's full of lies and cheat meals, but i think i'm doing okay. somedays, i don't log everything because i'm lazy i guess or i don't have to.

    whatever works for you.

    all the best.
  • SarahLovesCheesecake
    SarahLovesCheesecake Posts: 520
    Absolutely not. There's only one person you're cheating!!!
  • its_betty
    its_betty Posts: 104 Member
    It's only data, so fibbing only wrecks the accuracy of the data.

    I try to keep it honest. Keeping a food log is teaching me how many calories are in a given amount of each food. When I stop calorie-counting, I want to have learned how much is a reasonable serving of everything, so I can eat reasonable meals without stopping to calculate every calorie.

    (Although I probably underestimate my Costco sample calories. At least that's only every couple of weeks LOL.)
  • ecp2698
    ecp2698 Posts: 267 Member
    I found myself over-estimating on exercise just because my HRM was inaccurate and showing very high for calories burned. I also never measured portions, and found myself eating little things here and there.. in the beginning it didn’t matter and I lost weight (probably because I was breastfeeding.) Then I got stuck at a plateau and really looked at what I had been doing (or not.) I got a new, more accurate HRM and I was astounded and how many more calories my old one said I was burning. So I got accurate with that, then started measuring everything and logging every little bite, and just like that, lost 1.6lbs and (hopefully) broke the plateau. Long story short, MFP works, if you are 100% honest with yourself and accurate! :)
  • Legs_McGee
    Legs_McGee Posts: 845 Member
    I tend to err on the side of caution - overestimate my food calories and underestimate my calories burned. But I try to be as honest as I can - which is why I admitted that yes, I did eat potato chips AND Hostess Ding Dongs AND Hostess Cupcakes yesterday! :) Oh - and McDonalds for breakfast.
  • rickdz
    rickdz Posts: 15
    I do this too, but it's probably very slight. I x saw someone post today that they burned 2100 calories in 6 hours of shopping. That's extreme exaggeration and I don't see the point of bothering with this if your numbers are just completely made up
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